Computer Upgrade Advice

[PeterH92]

Hi, everyone I'm wanting to upgrade my PSU and my computer case I currently have the Ace Black 650W ATX Power Supply and the Vantage X11 Advanced X-Station case I'm just wondering what PSU and case I should go for my PC specs are below.

Thank You.

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor.
CPU Cooler: AMD FX-6300 Stock Cooler.
PSU: Ace Black 650W ATX Power Supply.
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB KHX1600C10D3/8GX.
Graphics Card: VTX3D HD 7750.
Hard Drive: WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 ATA Device.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 4.1).
Case: Vantage X11 Advanced X-Station.

 

[tsnor]

power supply: for an active discussion post in the "component" section. Here is a list of power supplies ranked based on ability to deliver good clean power. http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2547993/psu-tier-list.html Goto site http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/ and read a few of their power supply reviews, and you will never buy a junk PSU again. FWIW I now buy seasonic, used to buy antec, never had a problem with either.

Case: This is a personal preference item. Decide what you want it to look like, then how loud it can get while delivering good cooling. Personally I love the Fractal Design cases I own. You could do worse than an R5 - https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Fractal+Design+Define+R5+Black

 

[PeterH92]

Hi, again I need some advice I'm thinking about buying this PSU Corsair CX550M 550W Semi-Modular ATX 80 PLUS Bronze would this be enough power for my system?

CPU: AMD FX-6300 Six-Core Processor.
CPU Cooler: AMD FX-6300 Stock Cooler.
RAM: Kingston HyperX Blu 16GB KHX1600C10D3/8GX.
Graphics Card: VTX3D HD 7750.
Hard Drive: WDC WD10EZEX-00BN5A0 ATA Device.
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 (rev. 4.1).
Case: Vantage X11 Advanced X-Station.

Thanks,
Peter.

 

[tsnor]

The 550W has plenty of power for this system.

To be sure for yourself, you google each major part (video card, CPU) with the letters "TDP" and you will see

CPU Thermal Design Power = 95 W
Video, 7750, 55W
Overclocking these two part might add another 50W if you go crazy on the CPU (with stock cooler).

Add in about 50W for all the hard drives, etc and you have a MAX draw of about 200W. Typical gaming would be about 150W or less. A 350W PSU would work for this system, a 450 would give you plenty of headroom to add in a higher power video card. A 550 is not going to ever run more than 30% typical gaming, however all that means is that you get a bit less efficiency and a cool running PSU.

If you ever get wondering how much power you are actually using it's very easy to measure power use at the wall, and then multiply by your PSU efficiency to get the actual PC power usage. Example: if you measure 200W at the wall and you have an 80% efficient PSU then your PC is pulling 160W ( which is 0.80 times 200) and your PSU is dumping 40W of waste heat.

a "kill a watt meter" is $20 at amazon and will tell you how many watts you are pulling https://www.amazon.com/P3-P4400-Electricity-Usage-Monitor/dp/B00009MDBU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1471784997&sr=8-1&keywords=kill+a+watt+meter
as will a good $120 battery backup like this one: APC UPS Battery Back Up (BR1000G) https://www.amazon.com/APC-Battery-Back-BR1000G-Uninterruptible/dp/B0038ZTZ3W/ref=sr_1_6?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1471785124&sr=1-6&keywords=apc+battery+backup

Update: if you lose power it's really nice to have a UPS powering your modem and router so all your laptops and tablets can still get internet....